


socks for boots

by bottlerocket32557038



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Eddie Kaspbrak Lives, Excessive Use of Parentheses, Gay Richie Tozier, M/M, Post-IT Chapter Two (2019), Reddie, Slight pining, Twitter, dialogue-heavy, diet pining i guess, richie gets a cat, richie tozier's crochet attempts, so does stan but he's not in this story, the author projecting her hobbies onto her favorite character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-19
Updated: 2020-11-19
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:01:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27635128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bottlerocket32557038/pseuds/bottlerocket32557038
Summary: hot ham water@trashmouthtoziereveryone meet boots5:59 PM · Mar 09 · Twitter for iPhonehot ham water@trashmouthtoziersocks for boots #kittenmittons4:36 AM · Mar 15 · Twitter for iPhoneOr - Richie gets a cat, a new hobby, and a boyfriend.Eddie's fine. Totally fine.
Relationships: Eddie Kaspbrak & Richie Tozier, Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier, Richie Tozier/Original Male Character(s)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 67





	socks for boots

**Author's Note:**

> A little ditty that's been stuck in my drafts for the past month.

hot ham water   
@trashmouthtozier  
everyone meet boots  
5:39 PM · Mar 09 · Twitter for iPhone

hot ham water   
@trashmouthtozier  
socks for boots #kittenmittons  
4:36 AM · Mar 15 · Twitter for iPhone

Attached to the first tweet is a slightly blurred, off-center photo of Richie’s jaw, neck, and shoulder. A small, tabby-colored cat is curled right in the divot of his chest and arm, legs tucked under its body and one copper eye peeking warily at the camera. Richie is wearing a lavender button-down with a front pocket and one of the cat’s little paws is tucked inside. Eddie’s throat tightens at the sight.

Richie had mentioned plans to get a cat in the group chat about a month ago, Eddie recalls. He and Ben had gone to a couple of shelters around LA one day and sent picture after picture to the Losers. They had all “ooh” and “ahhed” and agreed as Richie declared each cat was “The One,” but as far as Eddie knew nothing had ever come of the trip.

Apparently Richie _had_ finally gotten a cat, though. About a week ago, according to the timestamp on his first tweet. And that’s fine. It’s probably actually really good, Eddie reasons, that Richie has someone (something?) to spend time with and dote on.

The second tweet includes another blurry picture (and really, Richie should get his prescription checked): this time of the tabby cat on its back with all four legs in the air and what Eddie can only assume are the “socks,” although they would be more accurately described as four turquoise lumps of knotted yarn, at the end of each leg. The cat looks, to Eddie’s both horror and amusement, petrified.

Richie picks up the phone on the third ring and Eddie starts talking before he can get a word in.

“That’s a stupid name for a cat.”

“Well ‘hello’ to you too.”

“You’re lucky she’s cute because you really fucked her over with a name like that.”

“Aw, damn. Guess I should have gone with Eddie Cats-brak. That was my first choice, you know.”

“I fucking hate you. Why did you put socks on your cat? Isn’t it like 75 degrees where you are? Where did you even get those socks, by the way? They’re heinous.”

“I have the AC on. And for your information, Eduardo, I _made_ those. With my _hands_.”

“You’re joking.”

“Swear on the dead clown. David’s been teaching me how to crochet. Crochet, Eds, like I’m fuckin’ seventy years old. It’s amazing.”

“Wait, who the fuck is David?”

“If you ask nicely, I might even make you a hat. Keep you warm during those cold New York winters. You remember David. David-“ Eddie can hear him snapping through the phone. “David from the movie; he played the guy who got his dick stuck in the hose part of the vacuum. Didn’t I tell you about him? I’m gonna practice some more and then I could make you a sweater too I bet, and I’d only need one skein of yarn – it’s called a _skein_ , I know this shit now – and I’d probably only need one because you’re so fucking small-“

Richie’s going a mile a minute, but Eddie's brain snags on one part of his rambling.

“Richie, wait, why is some guy from your movie teaching you how to crochet?”

“Well, we gotta find some way to fill the time when we’re not boning. I’ve been trying to incorporate some of my Voices into our pillow talk but if you could believe it, my Schwarzenegger doesn’t seem to set the mood very well. Or I guess more like prolong the mood -”

Eddie’s heart drops into the pit of his stomach.

“Wait, what?”

“I know! I mean with the raw sex appeal of the Terminator alone, you would think-“

“You’re boning this dude?!”

“Ew, don’t say _boning,_ Eddie, it’s not classy.”

“ _You_ fucking – “

“Anyways! Yes, I’m boning this dude and he’s teaching me how to crochet and I made socks for Boots and that’s what’s been going on in my life. Now what about you? What have you been up to since I last saw you? How’s the wife?”

Eddie feels like he has whiplash; the conversation has taken so many turns. He can hear the tension in Richie’s voice, how he asks just a bit too casually. While Richie doesn’t know all – or any, for that matter – of the dirty details regarding Eddie’s ( _failed, failed, failed_ , his minds supplies, though it’s not like Richie _knows_ that) marriage, he has gleaned enough from Eddie’s nonverbal reactions whenever Myra is mentioned in any context to recognize that the subject is a sensitive one.

Still, it seems Richie is not above bringing her up to shift the focus from his own dating life.

Richie’s dating life. Richie has a dating life. Richie is dating someone. Richie got a cat and a boyfriend and is now crocheting little boots for his cat. With his boyfriend.

Eddie tucks his phone between his ear and shoulder, wraps both sets of fingers around the lip of the counter’s edge, squeezes his eyes shut, and takes a deep breath.

“We actually…um – I um… so there’s no wife anymore, um, actually.”

“ _Oh_.”

“Yeah. It, uh, it was a long time coming, I think.”

“Oh.” Richie repeats,and pauses, “Well, good for you, bud. Unless, of course, you’re super broken up about this in which case I can totally beat her up if you want me to. I would do that for you.”

Eddie grimaces.

“I really don’t think that’ll be necessary.”

“But for real, man. If you wanna, I don’t know, talk about it or whatever. I’m here.”

“Thanks, Rich.” Eddie pries his fingers loose from their white-knuckled grip on the counter and sets his phone down, tapping the screen to put Richie on speaker phone.

“My current strategy is actually trying to think about it as little as possible.” He continues as he pulls his refrigerator door open and analyzes the contents.

“Seems healthy!”

“Yeah, well, it’s getting me by so far. So,” Eddie shuts the refrigerator, clears his throat, and grabs an apple from the basket on the counter before switching the conversation away from the absolute train wreck that is his love life.

“What the fuck is ‘hot ham water?’”

Richie huffs out a laugh, and the sound is familiar and tinny through Eddie’s phone speaker, buries itself warm between his ribs.

“It’s from a show; it’s nothing.”


End file.
